Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama that starts off about eleven years after School's Out. It stars Spike Nelson's daughter Emma Nelson (played by Miriam McDonald), as she and her friends go through middle school, high school, graduation, college, and life challenges. The Degrassi: The Next Generation opening sequence follows a two to three minute cold open. During the first five seasons these credits showed the characters on the school premises and followed a mini storyline. Seasons six and seven featured titles with the actors breaking the fourth wall and facing on the camera, over a montage of character videos from past seasons, saturated with blue colour and gold outlines. The montages behind the characters depicting a major event in that character's storyline. For the eighth season, the show abandoned the style of titles used for the previous two seasons and returned to the original form of showing the characters at school while participating in school-related activities. The theme music, "Whatever it Takes", was written by Jim McGrath, Jody Colero and Stephen Stohn. McGrath composed the music, and Colero and Stohn wrote the lyrics which include the lines, "Whatever it takes, I know I can make it through/Be the best, the best I can be", to convey a "sense of joy and optimism". Lisa Dalbello performed the lyrics with a children's choir over an 80s pop music style tune during the first three seasons. Dave Ogilvie and Anthony Valcic of Canadian industrial/pop group Jakalope reworked and performed the song with a heavier sound, reflecting the growing maturity of the characters in season four. For seasons six and seven, the theme—still performed by Jakalope—was remixed and stripped of vocals. A fourth version of the theme song, with lyrics worked back in, was introduced for the eighth season. Main roles Main article: List of Degrassi: The Next Generation characters The opening season of Degrassi: The Next Generation featured thirteen actors in starring roles. Providing ties to the previous series in the Degrassi universe, Stefan Brogren was hired to play his old character Archie "Snake" Simpson, now working at the school as the media immersion teacher. Dan Woods reprised his role as Mr. Raditch, now promoted to school principal. Amanda Stepto also returned to the franchise to play her character Christine "Spike" Nelson in a recurring role. Miriam McDonald was hired to replace Ashlee Henricks (who had, in turn, replaced Samantha Morrison) as Spike's daughter, Emma Nelson; she would remain the only character from Degrassi Junior High or Degrassi High to be re-cast with a different actor until the season three episode "Father Figure". For the new generation of students, the producers chose eleven school-aged children from six hundred applicants in an attempt to provide characters to which the teenage target audience could relate. This was in contrast to other shows of the same period, such as Dawson's Creek, which cast actors in their twenties as teenagers. Sarah Barrable-Tishauer acted as high-achiever yet lonely Liberty Van Zandt. Daniel Clark played bad-boy Sean Cameron. Lauren Collins acted as cool cheerleader Paige Michalchuk. Ryan Cooley acted as class clown James Tiberius "J.T." Yorke. Jake Goldsbie portrayed Toby Isaacs, a computer geek. Aubrey Graham portrayed rich and athletic Jimmy Brooks. Shane Kippel played Gavin "Spinner" Mason, the school bully with a heart of gold. Miriam McDonald portrayed environmentalist Emma Nelson. Melissa McIntyre played Ashley Kerwin, the perfect girl who attracts the popular boys, and the other girls are jealous of. Cassie Steele played Emma's sidekick, the sweet and innocent Manuela "Manny" Santos. Christina Schmidt portrayed chubby and insecure Terri McGreggor. In season two, former Degrassi actor Pat Mastroianni returned to the franchise as Joey Jeremiah, followed by the return of Joey's former on-screen girlfriend, Caitlin Ryan (played by Stacie Mistysyn), in the third season. There have been a number departures from the series, and season six depicted the first death of one of the show's main characters, when J.T. Yorke was stabbed and killed. Daniel Clark's character Sean Cameron has been written out of the show twice. He left the series during the fourth season in the wake of the shooting death of Rick Murray, and returned for the sixth season. He left the series once again, but made another reappearance for one episode in season seven. The family of Joey Jeremiah was written out of the series at the end of season five, when Joey and his daughter Angie, moved to Calgary, Alberta, and his stepson Craig Manning left Degrassi to pursue his musical dreams. Craig has made guest appearances three times since then, reappearing in a two-part episode in season six and an episode in season seven. He will also make an appearance in the upcoming eighth season. Caitlin Ryan left to continue her career in Los Angeles, California, though she returned in one episode of season seven. At the end of season six several main characters graduated from Degrassi Community School, and either left the series or went on to university. As a result, six new characters were introduced in season seven in a storyline where nearby rival high school Lakehurst merged with Degrassi due to a fire. Season eight saw major changes when many of the existing cast members, including Aubrey Graham (Jimmy Brooks), Amanda Stepto (Christine "Spike" Nelson), Shenae Grimes (Darcy Edwards), Mike Lobel (Jay Hogart), Melissa DiMarco (Ms. Hatzilakos), Mazin Elsadig (Damian Hayes), and Shane Kippel (Gavin "Spinner" Mason) either moved to recurring status or left the series entirely. The exodus of several major cast members was reportedly an executive decision that left the actors and producers on bad terms, with Graham stating "producers did us foul." Thirteen actors were added to the main cast to replace them; Samantha Munro, Jajube Mandiel, Aislinn Paul, Raymond Ablack, Natty Zavitz, and Scott Paterson all held recurring roles in previous seasons, while Evan Williams, Judy Jiao, AJ Saudin, Sam Earle, Melinda Shankar, Jordan Hudyma, and Argiris Karras are new to the series. Cast Main cast * Andrea Lewis - Hazel Aden (seasons 3-5; recurring seasons 1-2) * Evan Williams - Kelly Ashoona (season 8) * Melinda Shankar - Alli Bhandari (seasons 8-present) * Raymond Ablack - Sav Bhandari (seasons 8-present; recurring season 7) * Jajube Mandiela - Chante Black (seasons 8-present; recurring seasons 4-7) * Aubrey Drake Graham – James "Jimmy" Brooks (seasons 1-7; guest starring season 8) * Natty Zavitz - Bruce (seasons 8-present; recurring season 7) * Daniel Clark – Sean Cameron (seasons 1-4, season 6; guest starring season 7) * Judy Jiao - Leia Chang (seasons 8-present) * Jordan Hudyma - Blue Chessex (seasons 8-present) * A.J. Saudin - Connor (seasons 8-present) * Annie Clark - Fiona Coyne (seasons 9) * Landon Liboiron - Declan Coyne (seasons 9) * Adamo Ruggiero – Marco del Rossi (seasons 3-7; recurring season 2) * Scott Paterson - Johnny George DiMarco (seasons 8-present; guest starring season 6; recurring season 7) * Aislinn Paul - Clare Edwards (seasons 8-present; recurring season 6; guest starring season 7) * Shenae Grimes – Darcy Edwards (seasons 6-7; recurring seasons 4-5; guest starring season 8) * Sam Earle - K.C. Guthrie (seasons 8-present) * Marc Donato - Derek Haig (seasons 7-8; recurring seasons 5-6) * Melissa DiMarco – Daphne Hatzilakos (seasons 5-7; recurring seasons 2-4; guest starring season 8) * Mazin Elsadig - Damian Hayes (season 7; recurring season 6) * Mike Lobel – Jay Hogart (seasons 5-7; recurring seasons 3-4; guest starring season 8) * Jake Goldsbie – Tobias "Toby" Issacs (seasons 1-7; guest starring season 8) * Pat Mastroianni - Joseph "Joey" Jeremiah (seasons 2-5; guest starring season 1) * Nina Dobrev - Mia Jones (seasons 7-present; recurring season 6) * Melissa McIntyre – Ashley Kerwin (seasons 1-4, seasons 6-7; guest starring season 5) * Christina Schmidt - Terri MacGregor (season 1-3) * Samantha Munro - Anya MacPherson (seasons 8-present; recurring season 7) * Jake Epstein – Craig Manning (seasons 2-5; guest starring seasons 6-7) * Shane Kippel – Gavin "Spinner" Mason (seasons 1- present) * Lauren Collins – Paige Michalchuk (seasons 1-7) * Jessica Tyler - Jenna Middleton (seasons 9) * Stacey Farber – Eleanor 'Ellie' Nash (seasons 3-7; recurring season 2) * Amanda Stepto – Christine "Spike" Nelson (seasons 3-7; recurring seasons 1-2; guest starring season 8) * Miriam McDonald – Emma Nelson (seasons 1-8) * Deanna Casaluce – Alex Nuñez (seasons 5-6; recurring seasons 3-4; guest starring season 7) * Dan Woods - Dan Raditch (seasons 1-4) * Stacie Mistysyn - Caitlin Ryan (seasons 3-4; guest starring season 1; recurring season 2) * Cassie Steele – Manuela "Manny" Santos (seasons 1-present) * Stefan Brogren – Archibald Rupert "Archie" "Snake" Simpson (seasons 1-present) * Charlotte Arnold - Holly J. Sinclair (seasons 7-present) * Argiris Karras - Riley Stavros (seasons 8-present) * Jamie Johnston – Peter Michael Stone (seasons 5-present) * Paula Brancati - Jane Vaughn (seasons 7-present) * Dalmar Abuzeid - Daniel "Danny" Van Zandt (seasons 7-present; recurring seasons 4-6) * Sarah Barrable-Tishauer – Liberty Van Zandt (seasons 1-present) * Ryan Cooley - James Tiberius "J.T." Yorke (seasons 1-6) Recurring Cast * Michael Kinney - Coach Darryl Armstrong (seasons 1-present) * Kristen Holden Ried - Scott "Tracker" Cameron (seasons 1-3) * Nigel Hamer - Jeff Isaacs (season 1) * Maria Ricossa - Kate Kerwin (seasons 1-4) * Linlyn Lue - Laura Kwan (seasons 1-present) * Fielding Horan - Oscar Reese (season 1) * Maria Vacratsis - Sheila (seasons 1-2) * Mony Yassir - Nadia Jamir (seasons 2-3) * Alexandra "Alex" Steele - Angela Jeremiah (seasons 2-5) * Hugh Dillon - Albert Manning (season 2) * Katie Lai - Kendra Mason (seasons 2-3) * Tom Melissis - Dom Perino (seasons 2-present) * Jennifer Podemski - Chantel Suave (seasons 2-present) * Kit Weyman - Sully (seasons 2-3) * Shawn Roberts - Dean Walton (seasons 2 and 4) * Travis Donegan - Trey "Towerz" Hightower (season 3) * Ephraim Ellis - Rick Murray (seasons 3-4) * Bailey Corneal - Amy Peters-Hoffman (seasons 3-4) * Marie Cruz - Julietta Santos (seasons 3 and 5-7) * Daniel Morrison - Chris Sharpe (seasons 3-4) * Elisa Moolecherry - Sydney (seasons 3-4) * Philip Nozuka - Chester Bloom (season 4) * Conrad Coates - Germaine Brooks (seasons 4-7) * Jonathan Keltz - Nate Harvey (season 4) * Christopher Jacot - Matt Oleander (seasons 4-5) * Nicolas Correia Damude - Diane (season 5) * Von Flores - Joseph Santos (seasons 5 and 7) * Caroline Park - Kim Song (seasons 5-7) * Devon Bostick - Nic Garcia (season 6) * Larissa Vouloukos - Isabella Jones (seasons 6-present) * Joe Pingue - Tony (seasons 6-7) * Doug Morency - Henrie Bince (seasons 7-present) * Gina Clayton - Zoey Jones (seasons 7-present) * Terra Vnesa - Trina (season 7) * Marc Minardi - Lucas Valieri (seasons 7-8) * Nicole Dicker - Becca (seasons 8-present) * Hayley Andoff - Gweneth (seasons 8-present) * Loretta Yu - Vickie (seasons 8-present) Seasons * One * Two * Three * Four * Five * Six * Seven * Eight * Nine Category:Shows